Sketch Pad: Time lands on Mars!

Don't forget both Zeff and Time creative director DW Pine will be presenting at SPD's next speak series event "News you can Use". Tickets are FREE for members! more process sketches after the jump

For last week's cover of Time,
Joe Zeff and the crew at Joe Zeff design did some out of this world
work (sorry!) to help tell the story of the rover "Curiosity" that
recently touched down on the martian surface. They were kind enough to
give us some insight into their process, check out the sketches and a
couple of words from the guys

Explains Zeff: "While Curiosity captures images of Mars, there's nobody on Mars capturing images of Curiosity -- except Curiosity itself. That's where Joe Zeff Design comes in. Ed Gabel started and finished the rendering the same day using NewTek LightWave 3D, the software we've used for more than a decade to create hundreds of magazine covers, advertisements and album artwork. Here's a look at the sketches . . .

here's the wireframe

and the final cover (if you're curious)

Joe's been at this for a while! check out this cover he designed for Time when working as their Deputy Art Director back in 1997

and Ed Gabel (VP of Joe Zeff Design) also produced this maritan classic back in 2004